NaVi and Aurora both advance to the semifinals of the upper bracket of Group B of IEM Cologne 2025

In the quarter-finals of the Upper Group of Group B of the IEM Cologne 2025 group stage, Natus Vincere (NaVi) and Aurora defeated strong opponents FaZe and Ninjas in Pyjamas respectively and advanced to the Upper Group semi-finals together.

NaVi and FaZe fought for three maps, and NaVi won 2-1 in the end. The first map Ancient was chosen by FaZe, and broky played a key endgame to help the team take the lead with 13-11.

However, NaVi immediately launched a counterattack on Mirage, and with iM's 1v3 endgame and w0nderful's quad kill in the middle lane, they tied the score at 13–9. The decisive map Nuke became a one-sided battle, and NaVi won six consecutive rounds on the CT side, ending with 13–5. The best performance of the game, b1t, led the way to victory with a rating of 1.36.

On the other hand, Aurora swept NiP 2-0, showing strong dominance. In the first map Dust2, Aurora reversed the situation after falling behind 4-8, woxic got 27 kills, and with the highlights of Wicadia and sjuush, they finally won the first game with 13-11.

The second map, Train, was a close match, and the two sides fought all the way to overtime. Aurora relied on the stable performance of woxic and Wicadia to end the series with a score of 19-15. Woxic scored a high rating of 1.46 throughout the game and won the MVP without any suspense.

With this round of victory, NaVi and Aurora have both secured their places in the semi-finals of the upper bracket of Group B. NaVi will face the winner of MOUZ and Liquid, while Aurora will wait for the winner between Spirit and HEROIC. In the loser bracket, FaZe and NiP will start the elimination match next Monday to try to keep their hopes of advancing.

IEM Cologne 2025 will be held in Cologne, Germany, bringing together 24 top teams from around the world. The competition will be held from July 23 to August 4. The top three will receive prizes of 400,000, 180,000 and 80,000 US dollars respectively.